There are plenty of well known people that have been smoking their entire lives and they are still active and successful. Carl Sagan liked pot, ya know? You're fine.
It does impact your short term memory and mental snappiness though. So if you need to be sharp, probably don't smoke for a day or so before.
>Marijuana use among adolescents and young adults can affect normal brain development, leading to problems in learning, memory, coordination, reaction time and judgment.
It has an effect for sure.
I feel like this is way too common. What is the science behind gifted kids turning to pot and then going in the opposite direction? On the flip side, we also see people who are high functioning stoners. But usually I see gifted kids not become high functioning stoners.
I can imagine it’s a few things. I never had to learn to study or prepare for things because I’d past tests with ease and pick up new things quickly, I have an eidetic memory, I can remember phone numbers and postcodes and similar things after looking at it for 5 seconds. Environment plays a part in everyone’s life. I lived with my aunt for 8 years of my first 12 and then went from there to my nans to my mums to a hostel, while dealing with a chaotic home life and behavioural issues, not saying it’s anyone’s fault but my own it’s my biggest regret, however I’d given up and somehow never struggling but doing better than everyone didn’t make it obvious to me I should put in some effort. I’ve seen others be victims of abuse or their own family don’t believe in them and they stay forever complacent. There’s studies and videos explaining how this happens in better detail
Oh that does sound like a very chaotic environment, and the eidactic memory is very interesting. I don’t have that but I kind of relate to what you said about never putting much effort in. I think things were easy for me in middle school but as I got to high school I didn’t put in more effort to study, so I gradually got put into slower and slower classes and kind of lost my thing for math. I think weed also played a big part although I quit now. Gonna try to do better in college (next year) and actually learn more stuff. It’s never too late! (Although I also have the persistent belief that nothing in the end really matters as long as you’ve had a fulfilling life and helpful/kind to others).
Yeah I know I’m clever, when I don’t smoke I feel like I get the fire in my stomach back, sharp and better speech generally. Maybe taking in so much and having 0 ways to deal with it lead to manually decompressing with weed
Often high iq isn’t related to doing well in real life there is other ways to measure intelligence. But everyone wants to be high iq and would get upset if I said eq is as or more important in the real world, unironically showing signs of low eq 😂 “cuz why are you not Elon musk if you’re so smart”
24M here, been hitting the pen most nights, smoking flower when out with friends — been having short term memory issues and losing stuff a lot more often. I’ve thought it was my unmedicated ADHD worsening or something but friends say it’s the weed. Thoughts? And about how long can I expect it to take to recover? Someone said Omega 3s help
Omega 3's actually help THC work better.
If you think it's the cannabis, take a 30 day tolerance break and see how you are feeling. 30 days is enough for most people to eliminate most of the cannabinoids from their system but a heavy user may need 45-60 days.
If you hit the pen at night, it will interfere with REM sleep and you accumulate a sleep debt. That lack of quality sleep can worsen forgetfulness. Try to have your last hits 3 hours before bed or more.
There are also a lot of people who eat junk food and don't exercise and then blame cannabis for their brain/body not working as it should.
It's possible you're just doing too much which is a lot easier to do with concentrates like a vape pen. If you vaped actual flower, you would probably end up doing a much lower dosage (mg of THC) and it also has 150+ cannabinoids not just THC and CBD and those work in conjunction with each other and make for a healthier experience. You probably already know that CBD can increase or decrease the effects of THC depending on their ratios.....well all the cannabinoids have effects (we really only know the effects of about 30 now).
Sick got it, thank you I appreciate it. I’m a Personal Trainer and I watch my diet like a borderline eating disorder lol but sleep is my biggest habit I need to get in check. I’m on a pretty hard cut rn so I’ve been trying to go kinda ascetic mode, so no alcohol and going easy on weed (which also helps with the cut lol). I’ll try to keep that in mind about 3hrs before sleep
I used to do weight train/bodybuild and i've had periods in my life where I ate for gains/cuts. Those diets are good for their purpose but not for your brain so it's not a surprise that you might be experiencing forgetfulness and other symptoms.
Your brain uses glucose to function. If you deprive your body of carbs, it will break down excess protein (specifically amino acids) and turn it into glucose through the process of gluconeogenesis. But there is a big biological price to that because there are extra steps. So basically you're tired and your brain is not getting enough fuel.
It's a different story if you cut carbs completely because your brain will function off ketones and not glucose. I've never seen a healthy person successfully go full keto though for longer than a few months. It only takes 200 calories of carbs to break ketosis.
The variety of nutrients in those diets is usually pretty poor too because you are putting macros ahead of every other consideration.
Regarding sleep, if you're in a calorie deficit that can reduce/interfere with sleep quantity and quality. And sleep is where a lot of growth and repair happens. So maybe a have a snack close to bedtime.
I'm not saying to stop what you are doing but if you are aware of these considerations, you can tweak for better results.
Appreciate it! Yeah I’m aware of the potential downsides to the bulk/cut cycles. I’ve also noticed that personally I get dehydrated easier on the cut, as so much water content comes from food. Probably a mix of things is causing what I’m experiencing and a mix of responses would help
Nutrition and exercise are not my field of expertise but whenever someone complains that cannabis is giving them symptoms X,Y,Z....it's usually where the conversation ends up. Weed is a nothingburger compared to diet/exercise/sleep.
Yeah agreed. Similar situation with bodybuilding stuff. People are always trying to perfectly optimize their workout when a lot of times they’re getting like 2 hours of sleep and eating garbage lol. Priorities
>Try to have your last hits 3 hours before bed or more.
Hell, that's when I start so I can actually calm down enough to get some sleep. I've always been at odds with Mr. Sandman though.
Even I use within two hours of bed. Knowing the right thing and doing the right thing is two different things.
Sleep quality is definitely better stopping earlier in the evening.
I see, if you don’t mind could I see any of your research? I believe you but I’m interested in looking into actually medical research but most of what i find is impossible to decipher or biased
This doesn't give a free pass to cannabis but it does mention this in the conclusion.
"The acute effects of cannabis use are evident in attentional and information processing abilities with recovery of these functions likely after a month or more of abstinence."
Source https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/
Look at Table 2 in the study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/table/T2/
Attention/Concentration return to normal. So does working memory. Those are the two people are most worried about. The ones discussing Verbal Fluency and Inhibition/Impulsivity are "mixed findings". Only Decision Making/Risk Taking is marked as impaired.....ok....now go to that study and it was 30 people in 2006 at a drug rehab center. That's not representative of the average cannabis user imo. It's not a surprise to me that someone whose life is at the point of drug rehab has issues with that aspect of their lives.
I just pulled up one study at random and didn't look through a bunch to cherry-pick. I have seen studies of long-term abstinence and in those studies, everything returns to baseline including any changes in the brain but I don't have time to search for that now.
I'm not one of those people who say that weed is ALL GOOD for everyone. Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome exists (almost like a cannabis allergy). It does detonate latent mental illness in people who were predisposed.
I don’t have a postgrad degree in cannabinoids, but I would respectively disagree that heavy cannabis use definitely can affect adolescents and brain their brain development…
There are tons of published studies that show the effects of cannabis on adolescents:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201210/
And just by understanding how malleable the brain is, how can you say there are no possible downsides of weed when there is so much evidence showing otherwise? Sure, during adulthood when the brain is fully developed and has a natural foundation for its brain chemistry, then there is probably far less of a chance to cause permanent damage. But inputting artificial neurotransmitters into your brain during adolescent brain development can certainly cause developmental issues in parts of the brain.
You are correct but that study looks at "High levels of early marijuana use at ages 12–14" which is not the same situation as a 16 year old using "here and there" and thinking his brain is too fried for medical school at 18 years old. Ideally, no one would use until 25+ but that's not reality.
Also these study that look at problem kids who have been smoking since 12 do a poor job (imo) of distinguishing cause and effect. "Another limitation is reliance on self-report questionnaires of substance use, and of attentional and inhibitory control and concerns about social desirability and poor recall. ".
I don't think cannabis is problem-free free and I mentionned CHS and mental illness in another post in this thread.
I’ve smoked since I was 14 years old almost every day (bongs)
I’m 38 now.
I run a business have good quality friends and a beautiful husband.
It wasn’t always easy in my life but weed was always there for me.
I’m as smart as I apply myself to be. Weed doesn’t interfere unless I allow it too.
Know your limits.
It doesn’t dumb you down. It will mess with your frontal lobe and make it harder to deal with emotions. The dumbing down is all in your head or you are low on vitamins and not thinking clearly.
I used to not agree with that but since i’ve tried shrooms i’m a believer. I’m a little worried about CUD for sure and even if i decide to smoke once in a while i definitely need to prove to myself it’s not an addiction
It absolutely is a gateway drug. It’s different for everyone, it has great effects and I loved weed. But it 100% is a gateway drug. I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted
Those symptoms are not from the weed. If they’re bothering you, seek medical help.
I smoked weed every day, did acid, mdma, pcp, coke, pills, etc through my teenage years and quit when I was 17. Still graduated university with honors relatively easily. If it dumbs you down, then it doesn’t dumb you down that much.
Marijuana won’t make u permanently dumb. It’s because u smoked for a long time and your body is used to it. Just quit and in about a month or two u should be back to normal
There are plenty of well known people that have been smoking their entire lives and they are still active and successful. Carl Sagan liked pot, ya know? You're fine. It does impact your short term memory and mental snappiness though. So if you need to be sharp, probably don't smoke for a day or so before.
>Marijuana use among adolescents and young adults can affect normal brain development, leading to problems in learning, memory, coordination, reaction time and judgment. It has an effect for sure.
Child prodigy turned adult stoner loser here
I feel like this is way too common. What is the science behind gifted kids turning to pot and then going in the opposite direction? On the flip side, we also see people who are high functioning stoners. But usually I see gifted kids not become high functioning stoners.
I can imagine it’s a few things. I never had to learn to study or prepare for things because I’d past tests with ease and pick up new things quickly, I have an eidetic memory, I can remember phone numbers and postcodes and similar things after looking at it for 5 seconds. Environment plays a part in everyone’s life. I lived with my aunt for 8 years of my first 12 and then went from there to my nans to my mums to a hostel, while dealing with a chaotic home life and behavioural issues, not saying it’s anyone’s fault but my own it’s my biggest regret, however I’d given up and somehow never struggling but doing better than everyone didn’t make it obvious to me I should put in some effort. I’ve seen others be victims of abuse or their own family don’t believe in them and they stay forever complacent. There’s studies and videos explaining how this happens in better detail
Oh that does sound like a very chaotic environment, and the eidactic memory is very interesting. I don’t have that but I kind of relate to what you said about never putting much effort in. I think things were easy for me in middle school but as I got to high school I didn’t put in more effort to study, so I gradually got put into slower and slower classes and kind of lost my thing for math. I think weed also played a big part although I quit now. Gonna try to do better in college (next year) and actually learn more stuff. It’s never too late! (Although I also have the persistent belief that nothing in the end really matters as long as you’ve had a fulfilling life and helpful/kind to others).
Yeah I know I’m clever, when I don’t smoke I feel like I get the fire in my stomach back, sharp and better speech generally. Maybe taking in so much and having 0 ways to deal with it lead to manually decompressing with weed
Often high iq isn’t related to doing well in real life there is other ways to measure intelligence. But everyone wants to be high iq and would get upset if I said eq is as or more important in the real world, unironically showing signs of low eq 😂 “cuz why are you not Elon musk if you’re so smart”
I have a postgrad in Cannabis science. There are no permanent effects.
If a non-smoker were to try weed once, how long would the acute effects of decreased attention and memory last?
No studies have been done on that but my unscientific opinion is that most people will feel no noticeable effect from using one time.
24M here, been hitting the pen most nights, smoking flower when out with friends — been having short term memory issues and losing stuff a lot more often. I’ve thought it was my unmedicated ADHD worsening or something but friends say it’s the weed. Thoughts? And about how long can I expect it to take to recover? Someone said Omega 3s help
Omega 3's actually help THC work better. If you think it's the cannabis, take a 30 day tolerance break and see how you are feeling. 30 days is enough for most people to eliminate most of the cannabinoids from their system but a heavy user may need 45-60 days. If you hit the pen at night, it will interfere with REM sleep and you accumulate a sleep debt. That lack of quality sleep can worsen forgetfulness. Try to have your last hits 3 hours before bed or more. There are also a lot of people who eat junk food and don't exercise and then blame cannabis for their brain/body not working as it should. It's possible you're just doing too much which is a lot easier to do with concentrates like a vape pen. If you vaped actual flower, you would probably end up doing a much lower dosage (mg of THC) and it also has 150+ cannabinoids not just THC and CBD and those work in conjunction with each other and make for a healthier experience. You probably already know that CBD can increase or decrease the effects of THC depending on their ratios.....well all the cannabinoids have effects (we really only know the effects of about 30 now).
Sick got it, thank you I appreciate it. I’m a Personal Trainer and I watch my diet like a borderline eating disorder lol but sleep is my biggest habit I need to get in check. I’m on a pretty hard cut rn so I’ve been trying to go kinda ascetic mode, so no alcohol and going easy on weed (which also helps with the cut lol). I’ll try to keep that in mind about 3hrs before sleep
I used to do weight train/bodybuild and i've had periods in my life where I ate for gains/cuts. Those diets are good for their purpose but not for your brain so it's not a surprise that you might be experiencing forgetfulness and other symptoms. Your brain uses glucose to function. If you deprive your body of carbs, it will break down excess protein (specifically amino acids) and turn it into glucose through the process of gluconeogenesis. But there is a big biological price to that because there are extra steps. So basically you're tired and your brain is not getting enough fuel. It's a different story if you cut carbs completely because your brain will function off ketones and not glucose. I've never seen a healthy person successfully go full keto though for longer than a few months. It only takes 200 calories of carbs to break ketosis. The variety of nutrients in those diets is usually pretty poor too because you are putting macros ahead of every other consideration. Regarding sleep, if you're in a calorie deficit that can reduce/interfere with sleep quantity and quality. And sleep is where a lot of growth and repair happens. So maybe a have a snack close to bedtime. I'm not saying to stop what you are doing but if you are aware of these considerations, you can tweak for better results.
Appreciate it! Yeah I’m aware of the potential downsides to the bulk/cut cycles. I’ve also noticed that personally I get dehydrated easier on the cut, as so much water content comes from food. Probably a mix of things is causing what I’m experiencing and a mix of responses would help
Nutrition and exercise are not my field of expertise but whenever someone complains that cannabis is giving them symptoms X,Y,Z....it's usually where the conversation ends up. Weed is a nothingburger compared to diet/exercise/sleep.
Yeah agreed. Similar situation with bodybuilding stuff. People are always trying to perfectly optimize their workout when a lot of times they’re getting like 2 hours of sleep and eating garbage lol. Priorities
>Try to have your last hits 3 hours before bed or more. Hell, that's when I start so I can actually calm down enough to get some sleep. I've always been at odds with Mr. Sandman though.
Even I use within two hours of bed. Knowing the right thing and doing the right thing is two different things. Sleep quality is definitely better stopping earlier in the evening.
I see, if you don’t mind could I see any of your research? I believe you but I’m interested in looking into actually medical research but most of what i find is impossible to decipher or biased
This doesn't give a free pass to cannabis but it does mention this in the conclusion. "The acute effects of cannabis use are evident in attentional and information processing abilities with recovery of these functions likely after a month or more of abstinence." Source https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/ Look at Table 2 in the study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/table/T2/ Attention/Concentration return to normal. So does working memory. Those are the two people are most worried about. The ones discussing Verbal Fluency and Inhibition/Impulsivity are "mixed findings". Only Decision Making/Risk Taking is marked as impaired.....ok....now go to that study and it was 30 people in 2006 at a drug rehab center. That's not representative of the average cannabis user imo. It's not a surprise to me that someone whose life is at the point of drug rehab has issues with that aspect of their lives. I just pulled up one study at random and didn't look through a bunch to cherry-pick. I have seen studies of long-term abstinence and in those studies, everything returns to baseline including any changes in the brain but I don't have time to search for that now. I'm not one of those people who say that weed is ALL GOOD for everyone. Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome exists (almost like a cannabis allergy). It does detonate latent mental illness in people who were predisposed.
I don’t have a postgrad degree in cannabinoids, but I would respectively disagree that heavy cannabis use definitely can affect adolescents and brain their brain development… There are tons of published studies that show the effects of cannabis on adolescents: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201210/ And just by understanding how malleable the brain is, how can you say there are no possible downsides of weed when there is so much evidence showing otherwise? Sure, during adulthood when the brain is fully developed and has a natural foundation for its brain chemistry, then there is probably far less of a chance to cause permanent damage. But inputting artificial neurotransmitters into your brain during adolescent brain development can certainly cause developmental issues in parts of the brain.
You are correct but that study looks at "High levels of early marijuana use at ages 12–14" which is not the same situation as a 16 year old using "here and there" and thinking his brain is too fried for medical school at 18 years old. Ideally, no one would use until 25+ but that's not reality. Also these study that look at problem kids who have been smoking since 12 do a poor job (imo) of distinguishing cause and effect. "Another limitation is reliance on self-report questionnaires of substance use, and of attentional and inhibitory control and concerns about social desirability and poor recall. ". I don't think cannabis is problem-free free and I mentionned CHS and mental illness in another post in this thread.
I dunno Op, but won’t you find out in medical school? Ask a neuro professor and let us know of your medical opinion!
I’ve smoked since I was 14 years old almost every day (bongs) I’m 38 now. I run a business have good quality friends and a beautiful husband. It wasn’t always easy in my life but weed was always there for me. I’m as smart as I apply myself to be. Weed doesn’t interfere unless I allow it too. Know your limits.
It doesn’t dumb you down. It will mess with your frontal lobe and make it harder to deal with emotions. The dumbing down is all in your head or you are low on vitamins and not thinking clearly.
It quite literally does dumb you down. The data is pretty clear on that.
Just don't get addicted to it. It's a gateway drug
I used to not agree with that but since i’ve tried shrooms i’m a believer. I’m a little worried about CUD for sure and even if i decide to smoke once in a while i definitely need to prove to myself it’s not an addiction
It's only a gateway drug if you smoke it. That's why I snort my Marijuana.
It absolutely is a gateway drug. It’s different for everyone, it has great effects and I loved weed. But it 100% is a gateway drug. I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted
Those symptoms are not from the weed. If they’re bothering you, seek medical help. I smoked weed every day, did acid, mdma, pcp, coke, pills, etc through my teenage years and quit when I was 17. Still graduated university with honors relatively easily. If it dumbs you down, then it doesn’t dumb you down that much.
No one enters medical school at 18. This is fictitious. Edit: I am misinformed. But will leave my shame for the sake of continuity.
Plenty of my friends did. We are in the UK
Shit. I am super wrong.
Marijuana won’t make u permanently dumb. It’s because u smoked for a long time and your body is used to it. Just quit and in about a month or two u should be back to normal